Der Mann mit der Totenmaske

I have fallen in love with serials as of late. You begin with the lengthier first chapter and soon cannot wait - no matter how poor the budget and performers are - to find out who the masked villain is in the last chapter. Well, The Crimson Ghost is no exception except that as far as Republic serials go this one has a slightly better budget then many and slightly better performers as well. Much of this praise can be directly attributed to directors Fred C. Brannon( a regular fixture in films and serials of this ilk), and even more so to William Whitney who worked on like material including the wonderful The Adventures of Captain Marvel. The pacing is crisp, the action plentiful, and the actors right on character. The story concerns a professor of physics creating a Cyclotrode that stops electrical engines in their tracks. A villain known as The Crimson Ghost, who is also a professor at the university(we get this info very early as it is our task to find out which one of the four men is the villain), will stop at nothing to get this so he can build an even larger model and live out his evil plans of world domination/great wealth. The Crimson Ghost created necklaces that he places over people to control them to do his bidding and if one tries to remove it - the victim dies. This serial has loads of action from innumerable fights(okay, maybe too many), electrical fires, gun fights, explosions, and even a tense operation scene. The set pieces are pretty decent as are the special effects. The story meanders here and there and the whole four or five chapters devoted to getting heavy water did get a bit tiresome at moments, but overall the suspense is maintained at a high level. The acting is all workmanlike with leads Charles Quigley as the hero Duncan Richards and Linda Stirling as his devoted pretty Friday doing well enough. The Lone Ranger himself, Clayton Moore, gets to parade around as a key henchman sans mask. He is quite good. How about the ghost himself? Well, I don't think you will be overall surprised who the ghost is despite the clumsy final chapter's resolution, but I will say that his outfit and that skull mask are awesome. I think that mask is easily one of the best of its kind I have ever seen in anything and one can see the influence it had on subsequent productions. If you have not had an opportunity to sit down to a serial, The Crimson Ghost is a good first foray.

In this 12-chapter action serial from Republic Pictures and directors William Witney & Fred Brannon, a mysterious masked villain known as the Crimson Ghost has stolen an experimental atomic weapon known as the Cyclotrode. He and his minions attempt to acquire the necessary components to make the device work, while scientific criminologist Duncan Richards (Charles Quigley) and secretary Diana Farnsworth (Linda Stirling) try to stop them.

This is another top-notch Republic serial, with great stunts, and overabundance of fight scenes, and ludicrous cliffhangers. The Crimson Ghost has been called the greatest villain in serial history, and his image is no doubt the most well-known. I like how he works with a group of standard gangster henchmen (including future Lone Ranger Clayton Moore), while he himself dresses in an elaborate costume, complete with skull mask and skeleton finger gloves. I wish there had been a scene where one of the henchmen asked him what the deal was with the costume and moniker, but that never happens. They just go along like this is typical criminal behavior. Quigley, as the hero, is good in the fight scenes but pretty bad in the acting ones. Still, all-in-all, as far as serials go, you couldn't ask for much more.

I got this for Christmas (today), and it's great. The plot doesn't make much sense, the acting is barely acceptable, and the production values are "budget", but my kids and I think that it's a hoot. The story is something about a villain in a skull mask and a ray that will disable electrical equipment, but who cares? It's really about the square-jawed scientist and his beautiful and plucky assistant dashing about risking death to bring the master criminal to justice, with constant fight scenes (filmed at a slower rate so that people move with astonishing speed onscreen) and cliffhanging endings.

There are plenty of unintentionally funny moments, too, as when the gang leader's right-hand-thug (played by Clayton Moore, eventually to be the TV version of The Lone Ranger) returns with a piece of equipment and the leader hisses that it's a "cheap decoy" (as if it looks any cheaper than anything else on the set). If you think that you might like it, you will, and if you think that you'll hate it, you're probably right about that, too.

Yes, Misfits brought me to this movie. (the reviewers stating Glenn Danzig "stole" the Crimson Ghost image for his band should understand that you can't "steal" from the Public Domain which The Crimson Ghost entered in 1971) I have watched both versions; the original serials and the colorized edited movie... if you go in with an open mind and accept it for what it is and the time period it was made, it's a fun movie to watch. The plot is silly, the acting is passable at best, and the actions sequences are cheesy, but hey it was 1946. The 6.5 rating here seems spot on so I'll give it a 7 to persuade anyone who is on the fence about giving it a try... Do It!!

Source of the Skull face that was stolen by Glenn Danzig for one of his band The Misfits album covers and t-shirts. The serial itself is so over the top in images and ideas that its become the source of a minor cult and is one of the few non-Flash Gordon serials that my non-serial fan friends know about.

The plot has a scientist creating a machine called a "cyclotrode" which will stop atomic missiles from working. It will also stop other things which is why a skull clad villain known as the Crimson Ghost wants it.

This action filled serial is a great deal of fun thanks to one of the silliest looking villains in movie history. Taking the idea of a masked bad guy and placing it into the realm of camp you can't help but watch the craziness that ensues. The mask looks great but you can't believe anyone would actually listen to a guy in a mask like that. Helping things along is dialog that is unintentionally silly thanks to the passage of time(The heroine is given a diaphragm from which her orders will come). It plays like the old Batman TV show but with better action and with out the knowing wink to the audience. Frankly if it wasn't so unintentionally silly you would never have heard of this serial or seen its iconic villain, even if it was pretty good on its own terms.

Definitely worth a look, after all it isn't often you get to see Clayton "the Lone Ranger" Moore as a bad guy.